Help:Editing
Editing a wiki can actually be rather easy. You can be editing an article within minutes. Let's look at the basics. Making changes Let's say you are reading an article and you see a mistake. Maybe it's a grammer or spelling mistake. Maybe it's a factual mistake. How do you go about fixing it? To edit an article, click on the "edit this page" tab at the top of the page. This will bring you to a larger text box where you can edit the article. Find the mistake and start typing away to fix it. While in editing mode, you can add or delete sentences, fix problems, and even move thing around for better flow. Don't hesitate to help enhance the page. Fix that mistake and remember that at some point, someone else will likely find a mistake you made...and fix it. Wiki's grow faster and more efficiently the more readers join in. That's how wiki's work. But wait? What are all those formatting codes? Don't worry about them. They may seem strange and exotic at first, but once you learn how easy they are to use, you'll come to rely on them to get your articles looking just right. Right before someone else thinks of a better way to present it. :) Take a look at the page on Wiki Markup to see what some of those codes really stand for and how to use them. One of the best ways to really learn how to edit a page is through example. Feel free to check out other pages, click on the edit this page tab and see how those pages were set up. There are two editing modes: ' ' and ' '. The former shows all the markup codes. The latter shows the page at it might look as you edit it. If you want to try out something without affecting an article, go to the Geocaching Sandbox. Consider that the playground where you can edit to your hearts content. Preview Your Edit At any point in the editing process, just hit the Preview button at the bottom of the text box to see how the page will look before saving your work. A valuable tool to use if you want to avoid multiple edits and saves. Add a Summary At the bottom of the editing text box is an entry bar preceded by the word Summary. Before saving any changes, you can use this spot to type a quick message explaining your edit. Let's say you added a picture to an article that had no pictures. You could type "Added a picture" to the summary before you save your edit. Then, on that page's history page, the summary will be listed next to your edit. This helps other contributors quickly see how you edited the page. You can also click the Minor edit checkbox if all you did was fix a spelling or punctuation error, saving the need for filling in a summary if desired. Watching the Page Next to the minor edit checkbox is the Watch this page checkbox. If you want to add the page to your Watchlist, check this box before you save. This is normally checked by default. If you do not want to automatically watch every page you edit, this option can be controlled through your Preferences. Saving an Edit Next to the preview button is the Save page button. When you are done with your edits, click on this to save your work. It will take you back to the article so you can see the final product. Article Information At the bottom of every article is some extra information and links. Besides the option to go into editing mode, you can also see who the last person to make an edit was, what pages link to that page, a history of the changes the page has gone through, changes to other pages that relate to the current page, and a permanent link. A permanent link allows you to link directly to the current version of the page. This can be useful on Talk Pages when you need to refer to a specific piece of information, even if the page has been revised. History Pages If you click on the 'History link at the bottom of the article, you can see a listing of all the revisions that page has gone through, who made the revision, and when it was done. Remember the permanent link referenced above? Each item on the history page is linked using a permanent link that highlights the altered section of the page, showing what that section looked like before and after the edit. Enjoy The Geocaching Wiki welcomes contributions by it's readers. We try to maintain a friendly environment where anyone can help expand the site without fear of repercussions. Keep your edits positive, unbiased, and focused on providing helpful information. Always remember to have fun. This site is built by geocachers for geocachers. The more people contribute, that more fun it becomes to work with on the site as a group. Category:Help